Everywhere you look, creators are reaching back in time, sampling from the past, and repackaging it for a new generation. Whether it’s reruns of your favourite ‘90s sitcom, classic tracks that suddenly become TikTok sensations (like D’Banj’s “Oliver Twist,” Psquare and Don Jazzy’s “Collabo,” and Dekumzy’s “Who Get That Thing”), or the resurgence of vintage fashion.

The allure of nostalgia goes beyond just the content we consume — it’s also influencing the way we dress, the way we talk, and the way we interact with the world around us. The fashion industry, for instance, has fully embraced the return of vintage styles. Y2K fashion, with its low-rise jeans, crop tops, and chunky sneakers, has made a comeback, driven by a generation that wasn’t even born when these trends first hit the scene.

Take television, for instance. Networks and streaming platforms have been riding the nostalgia wave with reboots and revivals of classic sitcoms that shaped our childhoods. There’s something inherently warm and fuzzy about watching old sitcoms. They offer a window into a simpler time, or at least, they let us pretend that life was simpler. Whether you grew up in the ‘90s, the ‘80s, or even earlier, tuning into these shows feels like a trip back to a version of the world that’s easy to romanticize. 

I recently had a conversation with a group of friends about fashion. I was basically talking about the tremendous love that I have for leather clothing — mini skirts, gowns, trousers, etc. I kept waxing on about how cool leather was. A friend, in discussing one of the downsides of wearing leather, pulled up a reference from an episode in Friends where Ross leaves his date and goes into the bathroom for a bit but is unable to pull back on his tight leather pants. He tries so many methods, calls Joey (of all people) for advice, but his antics culminate into what turns out to be one of the funniest scenes in the whole series. It is remarkable how Friends, which premiered on NBC in September 1994 and ran for ten seasons continues to remain relevant twenty-eight years later, even among Gen Z folks. It is one of the situation comedies (sitcoms) made by Baby Boomers about Generation Xers that was obsessed over by Millennials and now has woven its way into the hearts of new generations.

 

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Technology has reshaped the ways that media is consumed and Gen Z, being at the heart of this tech-savvy era, are major recipients of many tech perks. Shows from way back are made accessible to younger generations through platforms such as Netflix, Prime, HBO Max, etc. Thus, they are readily available when you want, on whichever device you want to watch them and for as long as you want. The accessibility of these shows gives us a pop-cultural context that helps us interpret the shows and the issues they highlight with a lot more depth when they relate it to the time-period in which they were aired. When Friends aired on Netflix, it became one of Netflix’s most-watched shows. It doesn’t help that the world is in a revolving state of distress, making it a sufficient form of escape and giving people reasons to revisit these old comfort shows. 

The value of Friends does not only lie in its funny subject matters, but in the fact that it explores relatable discourses in ways that are not only peculiar to the generation of the period which it aired. The characters are exposed as a group of 20-somethings dealing with the growing pains of young adulthood such as friendships, unrequited love, unemployment, breakups, etc. Every single one of them struggled with unemployment or with the question: “What is next?” and this has happened to everyone at one point in their lives. In all, the more time you spend watching the show, the more you feel like a part of their little group.

While Friends can be described as a show which largely deals with realities of life in a one-dimensional, barely-nuanced perspective devoid of politics, gender identity and non-white people, Moesha is a show that dauntlessly takes on these issues and at the same fulfills its comic requirements.

On Saturday, August 1st, 2022, Moesha hit Netflix, and this African-American comedy show which was initially created in 1996 quickly jumped into Netflix’s top 10 list. It is a series that details the life of an African-American family through the lens of the eponymous protagonist of the series, Moesha Denise Mitchell. Moesha is a 15-year-old high school student whose life revolves around the teenage world of rebellion, dating, premarital sex, teenage pregnancy, and other social issues such as race, gender and sexuality, anti-fatness, etc. It perfectly portrays the dynamics involved in dealing with Boomer parents.

Moreover, Moesha resonates greatly due to the fact of its being one of the interesting shows that focuses on young Black characters. Black television was not very popular in the 20th century and it was difficult to find shows that were mainly about Black culture with Black characters. 

The relentless focus on the past can be a double-edged sword. Critics argue that the nostalgia wave can lead to a stagnation of creativity, stifling originality in favor of safe, recognizable content. It’s unlikely that our love affair with the past will end anytime soon but the challenge lies in ensuring that creators do not become trapped in a cycle of reminiscence but instead use nostalgia as a crutch for creativity and innovation.